Writing letters became fashionable in Europe in the seventeenth century after the establishment of a postal system. Gabriel Metsu's painting is part of a Dutch tradition of images dealing with the popular subject of the love letter. The young woman, seated in an arcade, receives a letter from a young messenger. Beyond the arcade is a classically styled Palladian villa that conveys elegance and wealth. This panel is the companion to another painting by Metsu, today in the Musée Fabre in France, showing a man writing a letter. The two panels complement one another in size and subject, and the young man and the young woman may be the artist and his wife.